Headlines · 2026-08-08

U.S. officials said Iran and Oman are making progress on a framework for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with a deal expected soon. Reuters reported that the talks center on a safe passage mechanism for merchant vessels and that Tehran wants to retain a role in regulating traffic through the waterway.Reuters

The stakes are high because roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the strait. Reuters said Iran has been seeking fees of 5% to 7% of cargo value, while Oman has discussed around 3% and Washington wants no fees at all.Reuters

For markets, any durable shipping arrangement could ease geopolitical risk premia in crude, tanker and marine insurance pricing. CNBC and Gulf News both noted that U.S. officials have talked up a near-term deal, while Iranian officials have stressed that a shipping framework should not be read as a full reopening of the strait.CNBC

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the talks are progressing positively at both technical and political levels, but key details remain unresolved, including routing, security, and any fees or restrictions.gulfnews.com

Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett said investor bullishness has climbed to its most extreme level since 2021 and urged clients to cut exposure to risk assets. The bank’s Bull & Bear indicator rose from 9.4 to 9.7, its highest reading since 2021.

The call comes after a weaker-than-expected July jobs report. U.S. payrolls fell by 23,000, far below expectations for an 83,000 gain, which pushed traders to scale back bets on a September Fed rate hike.

U.S. stocks still rallied, with the S&P 500 closing at a record 7,757.64 and gaining 3.6% for the week. The Nasdaq rose 5.2%, its best weekly performance in months, as megacap tech names helped drive the advance.

Flows also underscore the market’s appetite. BofA, citing EPFR Global, said U.S. equity funds took in $9.6 billion in the week through August 5, while investment-grade bond funds جذب $10.2 billion and high-yield debt funds $4.1 billion. Cash-like money market funds added another $53.7 billion.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the administration is backing roughly $3 billion in mining projects, while also preparing to provide more than $2 billion to battery and critical-minerals companies. Reuters and Bloomberg both said the announcement was made at a roundtable with mining executives in Washington.

The move fits a broader U.S. effort to rebuild critical-minerals supply chains and cut reliance on China for materials used in defense, energy and advanced technology. Earlier reporting indicated the administration has been lining up financing and policy support for domestic mining, processing and workforce development.

For markets, the focus is on miners, battery-materials suppliers and equipment makers that could benefit from federal funding and faster project execution. The combination of project financing and direct company support suggests Washington is trying to de-risk supply chains rather than relying on one-off subsidies.

Officials have not yet provided a full breakdown of the programs. Public reporting points to a policy mix aimed at expanding U.S. extraction, processing and talent pipelines for the mining sector.

SpaceX said on its latest earnings call that it plans to begin launching next-generation Starlink Mobile satellites in 2027 and start offering an upgraded service by the end of that year. The company says the service will lean on 65 MHz of nationwide spectrum it agreed to buy from EchoStar, a big step up from the roughly 5 MHz Starlink Mobile uses today through carrier partnerships.

The move sets up a direct challenge to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, whose networks were built over decades of investment in coverage, spectrum and ground infrastructure. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company intends to pair satellites with small cellular base stations mounted on Starlink dish hardware, while analysts caution that capacity in dense urban areas remains the hardest problem.

Investors are watching the plan for its possible implications for wireless operators, even though satellite-to-phone services remain a niche add-on for now. T-Mobile has said its Starlink-powered service accounted for only about 0.0003% of network usage during peak summer traffic, reinforcing the view from several telecom executives that satellite is currently complementary rather than a replacement.

SpaceX says the upgraded network could be about 100 times better than the current Starlink Mobile system once the new spectrum and satellites are in place. Meanwhile, the big U.S. carriers have also moved to coordinate more closely with satellite providers, announcing a joint effort to pool spectrum and standardize services for direct-to-device connectivity.

Berkshire Hathaway said it repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own stock in the second quarter, a sharp increase from less than $300 million in the prior quarter. The company also reported a doubling of quarterly net income, helped by a bigger investment gain.

The results come as investors have been watching whether Berkshire will put more of its massive cash pile to work. The new filing suggests the company is leaning more heavily on buybacks and portfolio gains than it did earlier in the year.

For the stock market, the buyback figure matters because it feeds directly into how investors value Berkshire’s A and B shares. The report also points to a lower cash balance from the previous quarter, underscoring that capital deployment is becoming a bigger part of the story.

Ahead of the release, some analysts and media reports had floated much larger repurchase estimates, but the earnings filing confirmed the actual second-quarter buyback amount at $4.5 billion.

Trump Media & Technology Group said on Aug. 7 that it is ending two crypto-related projects with Crypto.com and terminating a previously announced services agreement tied to those plans. Interim Chief Executive Kevin McGurn said the company will concentrate on Truth Social and its planned merger with nuclear-fusion startup TAE Technologies.

The retreat follows earlier efforts to build a CRO-focused digital treasury company with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp., alongside broader plans in crypto wallets and prediction markets. Bloomberg previously reported the treasury deal, while other coverage said the company had been developing a wider crypto push around Crypto.com’s ecosystem token CRO.

The move puts renewed attention on Trump Media’s stock, ticker DJT, and on CRO-related expectations. For investors, the key issue is that the company is stepping back from a strategy that had been meant to give the stock and the token a new growth narrative.

Trump Media has not provided additional detail on which products are being scrapped or whether any capital is changing hands. The latest announcement reinforces its stated shift back toward media and away from crypto expansion.

AeroVironment Inc. is set to win a U.S. Army contract worth at least $400 million to supply its Locust laser counter-drone systems, according to multiple reports citing people familiar with the matter. The award is expected to cover dozens of systems and would mark a milestone for directed-energy weapons moving into production.

Locust is an AI-assisted high-energy laser designed to detect, track and help operators engage small and medium-sized drones. The reported contract fits into the Pentagon’s push for cheaper, more sustainable air-defense tools as drone warfare expands on modern battlefields.

AVAV shares rose on the news, reflecting investor interest in the company’s counter-drone franchise and the broader military laser market. A production award of this size would also strengthen AeroVironment’s position in a niche that has largely remained in testing and prototype stages.

AeroVironment has not publicly commented on the reported deal. For now, the transaction should be treated as a report until the Army or the company confirms the award.

The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Nvidia plans to invest as much as $3 billion in Lancium, a Blackstone-backed power infrastructure developer behind the Stargate campus in Texas. The deal would reportedly start with a $2 billion investment for roughly a 20% stake, with another $1 billion contingent on grid-related milestones.

Lancium owns the 1,000-acre Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene, Texas, which serves as Stargate’s first operational site. Stargate is a joint venture of SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle; when the project was announced in January, U.S. President Donald Trump said the companies could invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure.

Reuters reported that the enterprise value of Lancium and its land-and-power portfolio is around $10 billion. The capital is expected to help Lancium expand and potentially prepare for an IPO in 2027, underscoring how grid access and power buildout have become strategic assets in the AI boom.

Nvidia and Lancium did not immediately respond to requests for comment. If completed, the transaction would tie one of the world’s most valuable chipmakers more directly to the infrastructure layer supporting large-scale AI data centers.

Celsius Holdings drew sharp attention on Friday after CNBC reported that Rockstar Energy founder Russ Savage now controls more than 12 million shares, or about a 4.7% stake, in the company. Savage said the company’s leadership should be replaced and told CNBC he is willing to take over as CEO himself.

The push comes after Celsius reported second-quarter results that missed expectations. Savage has singled out the CEO, COO and parts of the brand and marketing team, while Celsius has already seen board changes this year, including two PepsiCo-nominated directors joining on Feb. 10.

The stock reaction was immediate, with multiple market feeds citing a double-digit jump in CELH shares. Investors are now weighing the company’s earnings recovery against the possibility of an activist-style management shakeup and broader strategic changes.

For now, the key facts come from Savage’s CNBC interview and Celsius’s own SEC filings and board announcements. There has been no new formal company response to Savage’s demands in the materials reviewed.

The Federal Reserve said U.S. consumer credit increased by $14.173 billion in June, above economists’ forecast of $11.85 billion and a revised $1.081 billion decline in May. On an annualized basis, total consumer credit rose 3.3% in June, rebounding from a 0.3% contraction the month before.

Revolving credit, which includes credit card balances, expanded at a 6.0% annual rate in June after falling 4.7% in May. Nonrevolving credit rose 2.3% at an annual rate, versus 1.3% in May, according to the Fed’s G.19 release.

The report is closely watched as a real-time read on U.S. household borrowing and spending behavior. A pickup in revolving credit often signals that consumers are leaning more on cards to bridge cash-flow gaps, while nonrevolving credit tends to reflect auto and student loans.

The Fed’s figures do not point to a single company, but they are relevant for credit-card lenders, consumer finance firms and retailers that are sensitive to borrowing trends and household demand.

Gold and silver staged a sharp rebound in the first week of August. The World Gold Council’s weekly market note says LBMA Gold Price PM fell about 1% over the week, but social-market signals described metals as posting their best week since January; gold miners ETF GDX surged about 21%, its strongest weekly gain since 2008.

The move came alongside a shift in rates pricing and inflation expectations. The bond market data in the search results show the 10-year breakeven rose from 2.20% to 2.28%, the 5-year from 2.16% to 2.26%, while the 2-year Treasury yield eased from around 4.34% to about 4.26%, suggesting less support for the Fed’s hawkish messaging.

Risk assets did not move in one direction. One market readout showed VIX up 4.04% even as SPY gained 1.80%, a sign that protection got more expensive into a positive close; another note said futures were pricing about 1.2 rate hikes by year-end, keeping policy expectations in flux.

Stock-specific momentum also remained strong in parts of the market. X posts flagged Nvidia up 11.1% for its best week since May 2025 and Financials ETF XLF extending to 10 straight weekly gains, underscoring a broad rotation rather than a single-asset story.

Several X posts from crypto traders turned more bullish on Bitcoin, with comments arguing that BTC may be due for a sharp near-term move and is improving versus the S&P 500. Caleb Franzen also said Bitcoin is trying to reclaim its 55-day EMA, reinforcing the focus on trend-following levels.

Background checks show the broader technical debate centers on higher-timeframe resistance. Cointelegraph cited analyst Rekt Capital saying the 200-week EMA is around $68,330, while Coinpaper described a resistance band stretching from about $68,500 to $70,000 across the 200-week averages and related trend measures.

That setup matters for Bitcoin-linked equities and trading platforms, including Coinbase, because crypto-asset volatility often feeds through to transaction activity and sentiment across the sector. NBTC News also highlighted a possible bullish island-gap setup in COIN, though that was presented as a chart scenario rather than confirmed market fact.

For now, traders are watching whether BTC can keep holding the $64,000-$65,000 area and make another attempt at the long-term moving-average cluster above. A prolonged range here would likely keep volatility elevated across crypto-related stocks and funds.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said he does not think it is appropriate for bettors to wager on what executives will say during earnings calls. Speaking around the company’s latest results, he argued that such contracts “probably should not be out there” and said prediction markets are likely to face more regulatory scrutiny over time.

The comments come as DraftKings pushes harder into prediction markets. The company previously said its prediction business topped $1 billion in annualized consumer volume and more than $2.3 billion in annualized total volume in January, while Robins has said DraftKings could invest $200 million to $300 million in the product this year.

The stock is sensitive to both earnings and the company’s new verticals. DraftKings kept its 2026 revenue guide at $2 billion, and investors have been tracking whether prediction markets can become a meaningful contributor without drawing tighter oversight.

Robins also said the liquidity in prediction markets is not purely retail-driven, arguing that professional market makers and institutions provide much of the depth. That framing matters because DraftKings is competing with Kalshi and Polymarket while trying to present its approach as more disciplined and consumer-protective.